The plain answer
Futures are priced by percentage with a per-order cap at most brokers. Upstox publishes ₹20 per executed order or 0.05% of the order value, whichever is lower. Zerodha publishes 0.03% or ₹20, whichever is lower. FYERS publishes 0.03% or ₹20 on its Standard rate and 0.03% or ₹15 on Prime. Options are usually priced as a flat fee per order instead: ₹20 at Upstox, Zerodha, Angel One and 5paisa, ₹10 at Share.Market, ₹15 on FYERS Prime, and per lot on ICICI Direct’s plans at ₹9, ₹19 or ₹49.
The statutory stack on F&O is its own schedule, it is the part of the bill that grows with the position, and it changed on 1 April 2026. STT on futures moved from 0.02% to 0.05% on the sell side. STT on options moved from 0.1% to 0.15% of premium on the sell side, and 0.15% is now charged on an option that is exercised. Stamp duty stays on the buy side, 0.002% on futures and 0.003% on options, and the exchange, SEBI, IPFT and GST lines sit on both legs.
Read the two halves separately. Brokerage is the broker’s fee, and it is either capped or flat, so it stays small and predictable however large the position gets. Everything else is computed on value and is not capped, so it grows with the position. On the two worked examples below, brokerage is ₹40 of a ₹612.38 futures round trip on a ₹10,00,000 notional, and ₹40 of a ₹106.47 options round trip on a ₹25,000 premium.
Why futures and options are priced differently
The two contracts hand the broker a very different value to charge against, and that is the whole reason for the split.
A futures position carries a notional value many times the margin that funds it, and the brokerage is computed on the notional. Take a position with a notional of ₹10,00,000. At 0.05%, a plain percentage would charge ₹500 for that order. The ₹20 cap charges ₹20 instead. The order value at which the two meet is ₹20 divided by 0.0005, which is ₹40,000 of notional, and at 0.03% it is ₹20 divided by 0.0003, about ₹66,667. Above those sizes the cap decides the fee, so a percentage rate on futures matters only on small orders and the cap does the work on everything else.
An options buyer pays the premium and nothing more, and the notional of the contract behind it is not money the buyer has committed. A ₹25,000 premium at 0.05% computes ₹12.50, and a ₹2,000 premium computes ₹1. A fee that small cannot price an executed order that carries the same exchange, clearing and settlement work as any other, so brokers publish a flat amount per order instead. Where an options fee is quoted on a value rather than per order, read the base carefully: one broker in our data file publishes the order value for options as (strike plus premium) multiplied by the lot size, which is a far larger number than the premium itself.
The practical consequence for a reader comparing the two: the futures fee is capped and therefore almost always ₹20 or less, while the options fee is a flat amount that does not vary with the premium at all. A large options position and a small one pay the same brokerage, which makes the premium per lot the number that matters on the options side rather than the fee.
The statutory stack on F&O
These are the lines that apply at every broker, and the rates below are read from Upstox’s published rate card on 16 September 2026. The 1 April 2026 change to STT is shown alongside the earlier schedule, because a contract note from before that date will not match the current column.
| Charge line | Futures | Options |
|---|---|---|
| STT from 1 April 2026 | 0.05% on the sell side | 0.15% of premium on the sell side, and 0.15% on an exercised option |
| STT from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2026 | 0.02% on the sell side | 0.1% of premium on the sell side |
| Stamp duty, buy side only | 0.002% | 0.003% |
| NSE transaction charges from 1 March 2026 | 0.00183% per trade, both legs | 0.03553% of premium |
| SEBI turnover fee | ₹10 per crore | ₹10 per crore |
| IPFT | ₹0.01 per crore | ₹0.01 per crore, on premium |
| GST at 18% | On brokerage, exchange charges and IPFT | The same base |
| DP charge | None | None |
Three lines in that table carry most of the cost. The STT change is the first: a futures sell that paid ₹200 of STT on a ₹10,00,000 notional under the old rate now pays ₹500, and an options sell that paid ₹25 of STT on a ₹25,000 premium now pays ₹37.50. The second is the options exchange charge at 0.03553% of premium, which is proportionally the largest exchange line in the F&O schedule: on a ₹25,000 premium it is ₹8.88, against ₹18.30 on a futures notional forty times its size. The third is the pair that does not apply at all, since neither futures nor options debit the demat account.
For comparison, the cash segment’s NSE transaction charge is 0.00307% per trade on both legs from 1 March 2026, having been 0.00297% before that date, and BSE rates vary by scrip group. Set beside the cash schedule, the F&O rates are not uniformly heavier per rupee of value: futures are lighter on STT, stamp duty and exchange charges, while options are heavier on both STT and exchange charges because they are computed on premium. What makes an F&O bill heavy is the base the lines are computed on, a large notional on futures and a small premium on options, not a uniformly higher rate card.
Same-day versus carry-forward
F&O positions divide into two habits, and only one of them can reach your demat account.
- A squared-off position. Bought and sold the same day, it settles in cash. No shares are delivered, no demat debit happens, and no DP charge arises. Upstox’s rate card lists no DP charge on futures or options, Groww’s pricing table shows ₹0 for both segments, and Angel One states that no DP charge applies to equity intraday, equity futures or equity options. The brokerage and the statutory stack are the same as on any other F&O order; nothing extra appears for having closed the position early.
- A position carried to expiry. This is where the ending starts to cost. Where the contract is physically settled, and stock derivatives are, a futures position that is not closed can go to delivery: the shares move, the demat account is debited, and a DP charge follows. Some brokers also publish a physical delivery brokerage. Zerodha charges 0.25% of contract value for contracts where physical delivery happens, ICICI Direct publishes 0.15% on physical delivery of F&O contracts, Groww publishes ₹20 per executed transaction for physical delivery of derivatives, and FYERS publishes ₹20 or 0.3% per executed order, whichever is lower. These are broker fees for a settlement that involves the depository, and they are charged in addition to the DP charge rather than instead of it.
- An option that expires. An option that expires worthless settles in cash: no shares move, no demat debit happens, and no DP charge or delivery fee arises. An option that is exercised is a different event and carries its own line, STT of 0.15% on the sell side of an exercised option as published from 1 April 2026. Where that exercise settles by delivery, the delivery that follows is where a demat movement and a DP charge can arise. Expiring worthless and being exercised are not the same ending, and they are not the same cost.
The distinction matters most on expiry day, when a position held to the close becomes a settlement decision rather than a trade. Up to that point, the cost of a futures or options position is brokerage plus the statutory stack, and nothing in the demat account is involved.
Two round trips, line by line
Both examples use a ₹20 brokerage on each leg, the published flat fee on options and the cap on futures, and the statutory rates from the table above, read on 16 September 2026. Amounts are rounded to the nearest paisa, so a column may differ from unrounded arithmetic by one.
First, futures on a ₹10,00,000 notional. The buy leg carries ₹20 of stamp duty at 0.002%, ₹18.30 of NSE transaction charges at 0.00183%, ₹1.00 of SEBI fee at ₹10 per crore, a negligible IPFT and ₹6.89 of GST. The sell leg adds the STT: 0.05% of ₹10,00,000 is ₹500, which is more than twenty times the brokerage on that leg and the single largest line in either example on this page.
| Charge line | Buy leg | Sell leg | Round trip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brokerage | ₹20.00 | ₹20.00 | ₹40.00 |
| STT at 0.05% | None | ₹500.00 | ₹500.00 |
| Stamp duty at 0.002% | ₹20.00 | None | ₹20.00 |
| NSE transaction charges | ₹18.30 | ₹18.30 | ₹36.60 |
| SEBI turnover fee | ₹1.00 | ₹1.00 | ₹2.00 |
| IPFT | ₹0.00 | ₹0.00 | ₹0.00 |
| GST at 18% | ₹6.89 | ₹6.89 | ₹13.78 |
| Total | ₹66.19 | ₹546.19 | ₹612.38 |
Brokerage is ₹40 of the ₹612.38 total, about 7%, and the statutory lines are ₹572.38. A reader who compares futures brokers on the brokerage line alone is comparing a fee that decides about seven rupees in a hundred of the cost.
Second, options on a ₹25,000 premium. The premium is the value the fee and the taxes are computed on, not the notional behind the contract. The buy leg carries ₹0.75 of stamp duty at 0.003%, ₹8.88 of NSE transaction charges at 0.03553% of premium, ₹0.03 of SEBI fee and ₹5.20 of GST. The sell leg adds STT at 0.15% of premium, which is ₹37.50.
| Charge line | Buy leg | Sell leg | Round trip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brokerage | ₹20.00 | ₹20.00 | ₹40.00 |
| STT at 0.15% of premium | None | ₹37.50 | ₹37.50 |
| Stamp duty at 0.003% | ₹0.75 | None | ₹0.75 |
| NSE transaction charges | ₹8.88 | ₹8.88 | ₹17.76 |
| SEBI turnover fee | ₹0.03 | ₹0.03 | ₹0.06 |
| IPFT | ₹0.00 | ₹0.00 | ₹0.00 |
| GST at 18% | ₹5.20 | ₹5.20 | ₹10.40 |
| Total | ₹34.86 | ₹71.61 | ₹106.47 |
Brokerage is ₹40 of ₹106.47 here, about 38%, a much larger share than in the futures example, because the premium is a small value base for the statutory lines to work on. That is the structural difference between the two segments in one line: the futures bill is dominated by taxes on a large notional, and the options bill is dominated by the flat fee plus a tax on a small premium.
What the two examples say together
In both examples the brokerage is the same ₹40 for a round trip, and the totals differ by a factor of nearly six. The fee does not scale with the position in either segment, which is the point of capping futures and flattening options, but the statutory lines do scale, and they scale on different bases. Comparing an F&O bill across two brokers therefore turns on the value base each one uses and on the segment’s own rates, not on the brokerage headline.
Published F&O rates across brokers
The table below is the published F&O brokerage at ten brokers, read from their own pricing pages on 16 September 2026. Where a broker publishes one combined figure for both segments, or does not publish one of them, the table says so rather than filling the gap.
| Broker | Futures | Options |
|---|---|---|
| Upstox | ₹20 or 0.05%, whichever is lower | Flat ₹20 per executed order |
| Zerodha | 0.03% or ₹20, whichever is lower | Flat ₹20 per executed order |
| Groww | ₹20 per executed order, one combined F&O line | The same combined line |
| Angel One | ₹20 per executed order | ₹20 per executed order |
| FYERS | ₹20 or 0.03%, lower; Prime ₹15 | Flat ₹20; Prime ₹15 |
| 5paisa | Flat ₹20 per executed order | Flat ₹20 per executed order |
| Share.Market | ₹10 per executed order | ₹10 per executed order |
| ICICI Direct | Plan-based, 0.007% to 0.029%; ₹20 per order under iVALUE | Per lot, ₹9 to ₹49; ₹20 per order under iVALUE |
| Kotak Securities | ₹10 flat per executed order | Not published |
| Axis Direct | Not published | ₹20 per order |
Two rows need a note. Kotak publishes one combined F&O figure, ₹10 flat per executed order for F&O carry forward, rather than a futures and options split, and its own page does not carry a separate per-lot options rate. Axis Direct publishes an options rate of ₹20 per order on its account-opening benefit cards, and no futures brokerage at all, so the futures cell stays as it was published. Groww takes the opposite approach to Kotak in wording and the same approach in effect: one ₹20 line covers equity and commodity F&O without separating futures from options.
The pattern across the ten rows is narrow. Nine of the ten price futures: three as a capped percentage, five as a flat ₹10 to ₹20, and one as a plan-based percentage with no ceiling published. Eight price options at a flat ₹10 to ₹20 per order, one prices them per lot, and one does not publish a separate options rate. The remaining differences sit in the plans, the per-lot schedules and the percentage itself, which runs from 0.03% to 0.05% on the discount schedules and lower on the plan-based ones.
The same whichever-is-lower arithmetic that caps futures is worked out in full on the flat vs percentage page, and the account each segment touches is set out on the demat vs trading account page.
Every figure in the table is checkable on a contract note, and the note is worth reading in a fixed order. The brokerage line should equal the flat fee or the percentage, whichever is lower on futures and whichever the broker publishes on options. The STT line should appear on the sell leg only, at 0.15% of the premium on options and 0.05% of the traded value on futures from 1 April 2026. The exchange line on options is charged on premium, not on the notional behind the contract, so a small premium produces a small number. And there should be no DP line at all on a position that was squared off or settled in cash.
What people usually get wrong
F&O brokerage is the main cost
On a ₹10,00,000 futures round trip, brokerage is ₹40 of ₹612.38 and the statutory lines are ₹572.38. On a ₹25,000 options round trip, brokerage is ₹40 of ₹106.47. The fee is the small half of the bill in both segments.
STT did not change
It changed on 1 April 2026: futures from 0.02% to 0.05% on the sell side, options from 0.1% to 0.15% of premium, with 0.15% now charged on an exercised option. A contract note from before that date shows the older rates.
Options are always cheaper than futures
The two are charged on different bases, a premium against a notional, so the totals are not comparable in the way the headline fees suggest. On the worked examples the options round trip costs ₹106.47 and the futures round trip costs ₹612.38, but the positions behind them are not the same size.
The ₹20 cap applies to the whole contract value
The cap is on the brokerage line of one executed order. Stamp duty, STT, exchange charges and the SEBI fee are computed on the full value, which is precisely why they can exceed the brokerage many times over.
Brokerage is charged only on the losing leg
Brokerage is charged per executed order, and both legs of a round trip are executed orders. The direction of the trade and whether it made money are not part of the calculation, for brokerage or for STT.
Questions people ask
Yes, on 1 April 2026. STT on equity futures moved from 0.02% to 0.05% on the sell side, and STT on equity options from 0.1% to 0.15% of premium, with 0.15% also charged on an option that is exercised. The earlier rates applied from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2026. Both schedules are printed on Upstox's own rate card, which is where the figures on this page were read on 16 September 2026.
Yes. Brokerage is charged per executed order, and opening and closing a position are two executed orders. The cap or flat fee applies to each order separately, so a futures round trip pays it twice and an options round trip pays it twice. Nothing is netted between the legs, even when the second leg closes the first.
For an option that expires worthless, no. It settles in cash, no shares move, and no DP charge or delivery fee arises. For a futures contract taken to expiry, it depends on the settlement: a contract that settles by delivery brings a demat movement, a DP charge and, at some brokers, a physical delivery brokerage. Zerodha publishes 0.25% of contract value for contracts where physical delivery happens, and ICICI Direct publishes 0.15% on physical delivery of F&O contracts.
No. A DP charge arises when shares are debited from the demat account, and neither a squared-off position nor a cash-settled one debits it. Upstox lists no DP charge for futures or options, Groww shows ₹0 for both segments, and Angel One states that no DP charge applies to equity intraday, equity futures or equity options. The charge belongs to the sell side of a delivery trade.
Because the premium is the only value the buyer pays, and at retail sizes a percentage of it is too small to price an executed order. 0.05% of a ₹25,000 premium is ₹12.50, and 0.05% of a ₹2,000 premium is ₹1. A flat fee per order prices the processing instead, which is why ₹20 per executed order is the common published figure and Share.Market publishes ₹10.
The brokerage and the statutory stack are the same; there is no separate intraday rate published for futures or options at the brokers in our data file. What differs is the ending. A same-day square-off settles in cash and never touches the demat. A position carried to expiry can settle by delivery, which brings a DP charge and, at some brokers, a physical delivery brokerage.
Where to go next
Sources
- Upstox. “Brokerage charges,” including the F&O statutory rate card. Accessed 16 September 2026.
- Zerodha. “Charges: equity, F&O, currency and commodity.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- Groww. “Pricing.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- Angel One. “Pricing & brokerage charges.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- FYERS. “Pricing.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- 5paisa. “Brokerage charges.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- Share.Market (PhonePe Wealth Broking). “Charges.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- ICICI Direct. “Brokerage.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- Kotak Securities (Kotak Neo). “Pricing.” Accessed 16 September 2026.
- Axis Direct. “Schedule of charges for individual clients,” demat and DP charges. Accessed 16 September 2026.
- Securities and Exchange Board of India. “Legal framework: circulars.” Accessed 16 September 2026.